A mediaevalist trying to be a philosopher and a philosopher trying to be a mediaevalist write about theology, philosophy, scholarship, books, the middle ages, and especially the life, times, and thought of the Doctor Subtilis, the Blessed John Duns Scotus.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A Subtle Doctor?

More for the eclectic medievalist:

"Sir Launcelot, now I telle the, I have loved the this seven yere; but there may no woman have thy love but Quene Gwenyver--and sythen I myght nat rejoyse the nother thy body on lyve, I had kepte no more joy in this worlde but to have thy body dede: Than wolde I have bawmed hit and sered hit, and so to have kepte hit my lyve days--and dayly I sholde have clypped the and kyssed the, dispyte of Quene Gwenyvere." "Ye sey well," seyde Sir Launcelot. "Jesu preserve me frome your subtyle crauftys." And therewithall he tokehis horse and so departed frome hir. And as the booke seyth--whan Sir Launcelot was departed, she toke suche sorow that she deyde within a fourtenyte; and hir name was called Hallewes the Sorseres . . .

--Malory, Le Morte Darthur

In this passage Lancelot's embalmed and dessicated body represents the powerful and robust philosophia perennis of Thomism, stronger than any competitor, after having been made prey of by the "subtyle crauftys" of necropolitic pre-modernity. See "After Writing" for details and for equally compelling arguments.